The Last City
by mercscilla
Summary: City after city falls, hordes of the undead swarming through them until all traces of mankind have been ripped away. (Zombie AU)


**A/N:** I only wanted to make a mini!picspam for a zombie au with a short summary but all of the sudden it turned into a drabble and rewrite of S1. Whoops?  
**Disclaimer:** I own neither the show nor the characters. I don't earn any money with this piece. I just do it for fun.

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The virus is nothing like they've ever seen. What scientists believed to be a simple flu has turned into something monstrous and terrifying. People are no longer people, now they hunger for human flesh, and the world as Rachel knows it slowly sinks into darkness and chaos. City after city falls, hordes of the undead swarming through them until all traces of mankind have been ripped away.

All her hopes of finding a vaccine and maybe even a cure rest on the primordial strain she found by pure determination and a good portion of sheer luck, but when the lab where she's conducting her research is destroyed and she barely escapes with her life, she realizes that the zombies are the least danger she has to fear.

Fleeing with nothing but the primordial strain and a few of her notes, Rachel makes her way to Norfolk, the last city under human control and the last city fighting for humanity's survival. Its commander is a former Navy captain and according to the the last message she received from the White House before it went dark forever, the only person she can (and should) trust to help her.

Tom doesn't know what to make of the woman that appears at the gates of his city three months after the world has succumbed to the virus known as Red Death. She looks as if she's been through hell but she keeps her distance and her secrets to herself. It's only four months later when a group of Blood Raiders attack Norfolk and are clearly after the woman that he demands the truth from her.

The choice he has to make isn't an easy one - either he hands her over to those who want to rule a world forever lost or he offers her protection and a place where she can try and save the world as crazy as it may sound. People depend on him, their future depends on his decision, but what kind of future is it when you have to live with the ever-present danger of being bitten and turned into a mindless monster?

Something about her and the way she fights to be heard by him tells him he can (and should) trust her, and so he does and risks everything by letting her stay. Norfolk becomes a beacon of hope, the last city to stand against a world trying to swallow humanity whole.

There are set-backs and failure along the way, it's easier to believe in people when they succeed, but Rachel never gives up, not once, not even when she thinks she's lost his trust for good. It takes Tom to hear the stories of how she risked her life and fought to be here to finally understand the extent of her dedication to save the human race, and he promises her to get her whatever she needs to create a vaccine – and maybe even a cure.

When he's captured by Blood Raiders and they demand Rachel to be handed over with all of her research, they both know it's her death sentence. She still agrees to an exchange, and Tom isn't really surprised to find out that it's all part of an insane rescue operation, his men following her lead as if they were following his. There's a change between them afterwards, and it's not just due to the kiss they shared to pass on the note, it goes deeper than that.

Then comes the day she finally finds not only the vaccine but an actual cure, and the news spreads like wildfire through the country. They're contacted by Amy Granderson who wants her city to join forces with Norfolk, and suddenly the end of the apocalypse seems to be within their grasp. Too late they realize it's a trap set by Blood Raiders, and before they now it they find themselves separated from each other and stuck in Baltimore, the Lost City, surrounded by the undead and Blood Raiders, out to devour and kill them.

What should have been the end is only the beginning of the end.

- END -


End file.
